Search Efforts Continue in Yamagata, Akita Prefectures; Heavy Rain Causes Devastating Landslides (Update 1)

The Yomiuri Shimbun

12:28 JST, July 27, 2024 (updated at 14:30 JST)

Three people remain missing in Yamagata and Akita prefectures, where heavy, record-breaking rain has fallen. Police and fire departments continued their search efforts at various locations on Saturday.

In Shinjo, Yamagata Prefecture, one police officer was declared dead while another was missing after a police car was swept away. More than 100 firefighters and members of the prefectural police mobile unit resumed the search at around 6:30 a.m. on Saturday.

The search was conducted in rice fields near the Nitta River, a tributary of the Mogami River. Officers used sticks to part the rice stalks and search for clues, while a prefectural police helicopter and a drone conducted aerial searches.

A 75-year-old man watching nearby said, “I pray that he hasn’t been swept away by the river. I hope he is found soon.”

In Akita Prefecture, a prefectural firefighting helicopter searched from the air for a man in his 60s on Saturday morning after he went missing due to a landslide at a road construction site in Yuzawa. Additionally, the police are searching for a 42-year-old man from Daisen in the prefecture who has been missing since Wednesday night.

According to the Sendai Regional Headquarters of the Japan Meteorological Agency, heavy rain is expected in the area until Saturday night, and rain is also forecasted for Sunday.